Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

Snickerdoodle Basketball Cake! Bubby's has really enjoyed being part of a basketball team this winter.  Ever since he was 5 years old, he's said basketball is his favorite sport, but up to now has never had a chance to be part of a team. When the opportunity arose we hesitated a bit because it seemed like an ideal place to catch Covid. But ultimately he has to live his life, and we encouraged him. And he had such a great - and healthy - season! For the team's end-of-season party we were asked for contributions and I knew immediately a cake was in order. I was very happy no one else volunteered cake, either.  I needed to think of a flavor that everybody would like so I went with Snickerdoodle cake.  I like  this recipe  from Preppy Kitchen because it tastes great, doesn't require special ingredients, and makes for a tall cake that is more fun to decorate.  I used it for Bubby's graduation cake last year and it was a hit. Initially, I thought of making a 3D b...

Vanilla Strawberry "Olympic" birthday cak e This year, R* wasn't sure what he wanted to do for his birthday but he knew he wanted it to involve ice cream cake. However at the last minute, we had a family emergency and had to spend his birthday weekend out of town.  Since ice cream doesn't travel well, I decided to make him a small birthday cake. He requested a vanilla cake, and I suggested we complement it with strawberry frosting since that's his second favorite flavor.  A Vanilla and Strawberry Cake was in order! Looking for recipes for small-batch vanilla cakes I came across  this one  from Butternut Bakery. I'm a fan of their Instagram page where everything always looks delicious, and the recipe got good reviews. I also liked that it was only a 2-layer cake, so that I'd have to make less frosting when I put it together. The cakes baked up in 25 minutes, it seems my oven is now running too hot, whereas before it wasn't heating up enough!  My oven t...